Cuckoo proposed for ESA protections

The federal government wants to protect the yellow-billed cuckoo, which lives in California.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing that the yellow-billed cuckoo be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The cuckoo once lived in cottonwoods and willows along rivers and streams across the West.

Dams, grazing and river channelization have reduced its habitat and its range. Today, it can be found mostly along portions of the Sacramento and Kern rivers in California, the Colorado, Verde and San Pedro in Arizona, and the Gila and Rio Grande rivers in New Mexico.

The Center for Biological Diversity entered an agreement with the federal wildlife service in 2011 to speed protections for the birds and 757 other imperiled species.

So far, 117 have been protected and another 65 have been proposed for protections.